'The introduction of new social science degrees is accompanied by an intensive discussion about the content and the practical relevance of education in methods and statistics. On this occasion the actual educational praxis was consistently evaluated as negative. Nevertheless, no agreement has been reached about how to change the education in a positive way. This article describes the frequency of practical usage of different methodological and statistical procedures. Furthermore it shows which kind of knowledge is seen as indispensable by practitioners. An internet survey was conducted among members of scientific departments, market research firms and polling institutes. Additionally, contributions in social science journals were analysed by means of content analysis.' (author's abstract)|